
Joined Geovation.
Closed UoS Dragons Den investment.
Awarded UK Space Agency and SPRINT grant & The Times coverage.
Awarded Royal Academy of Engineering – Enterprise Fellowship.
ArchAI is de-risking the construction industry by using AI to automatically detect archaeology on earth observation data. Knowing where archaeology is located at the earliest planning stages allows accurate estimates of time and cost involved with acquiring planning permission and eliminates the risk of discovering unexpected archaeology during construction. This means that ArchAI will lower the cost of construction and ensures that vital historical sites are preserved.
As a society we highly value archaeology, it is therefore a legal requirement to assess potential archaeological damages when submitting commercial development applications.
In August, the government announced that they want to reduce the time it takes to acquire planning permission from 7 years down to 30 months. Without innovation, this will reduce accuracy and lead to unexpected archaeological discoveries during development.
ArchAI uses AI to automatically detect archaeology using Earth Observation data which brings instant archaeology assessments to construction. Our pre-planning tool will allow for accurate estimates of time and cost involved with archaeological assessments. This means that developers will be able to quickly evaluate prospective building locations and avoid pursuing planning applications where that will ultimately be prohibitively expensive.
The commercial archaeology market in Britain is worth £220 million and in the EU €1.7 billion. Of this market, 50% of the development is on greenfield sites and 60% (desk-based assessment and field evaluation) can be substituted by ArchAI. So, the addressable markets are £66 million and €510 million.
ArchAI’s pre-planning tool is a Software as a Service with a subscription where customers have access to different tiers based on the total km²/sensor used for assessments.
The technology was tested in a trial with Historic Environment Scotland on the Isle of Arran using LiDAR data. In this trial, we found hundreds of previously unknown archaeological sites which has generated international interest. We are currently entering the commercial sector and have spoken to several construction companies who have all emphasized that speed and accuracy are key at the early planning stages.